Butterfly Bakery of Vermont – Tomato Herb Serrano Hot Sauce
Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Fresh, tomato, dill, cilantro
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium with some nice pepper and vegetable bits
Ingredients: Organic white vinegar, Red Fire Farm serranos, Lester Farm tomatoes, Quill Hill Farm habaneros, Otter Point Farm “Carmen” sweet peppers, lemon juice, Honey Field Farm fresh cilantro, Red Fire Farm fresh dill, salt, olive oil, black pepper.
When I was looking through my stash for a new bottle to open I decided I wanted something on the mild to medium side because I still have a couple of unfinished reaper and 7 pot Primo sauces that I need to kill off before I open up another super-hot sauce. The name of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont Tomato Herb Serrano spoke to me as I enjoy all of those things so decided this would be a fun one of their micro-batch sauces to open up next.
When I looked at the ingredients list I was struck by two things. One, it looked delicious, and two, it looked strangely familiar. I realized that this is essentially their Hot House Hot Sauce, made for season twenty six of The Hot Ones, but without the ghost peppers or reapers. So we have red serranos, one of my favorite peppers, paired with (I’m assuming) red habaneros (another favorite), and carmen sweet peppers plus the richness of tomato and olive oil, an herbal kick from cilantro and dill, and some extra freshness from lemon juice. Tomato Herb Serrano still has the seeds and some pepper bits inside, something I love texturally, and has a medium consistency that flows well. The herbs are prominent in the aroma along with the vinegar and peppers.
I remember thinking Hot House Hot Sauce tasted very fresh, almost like a farmer’s market stand pureed into a bottle, and Tomato Herb Serrano has that same vibe. While Hot House Hot Sauce was a bit too dill heavy for my taste the dill flavor is more balanced in this one. It’s still prominent but the tomato flavor comes through more, and I’m a big fam of tomato in hot sauces (and Butterfly Bakery of Vermont seems to source some great tomatoes) because of the natural tang and richness they can add. The cilantro also seems to come out more in this sauce which makes it taste extra fresh. There’s a great interplay between the vinegar, the natural acidity of the tomato, and the sour fresh flavor of the lemon juice that makes this sauce quite tangy but without tasting vinegar-heavy. The chile pepper flavors don’t hide in the background either, you can taste the fruit of the habanero and the juiciness of the serrano and carmen peppers with just enough of that vegetal flavor from those capsicum annuum peppers to add depth and contrast. Though there’s not much olive oil in this sauce – it’s not close to being emulsified for instance – what’s there both adds some richer mouthfeel and substance to the sauce and helps enhance the other flavors by carrying the fat soluble flavor elements forwards. Tomato Herb Serrano has a lot going on but I wouldn’t necessarily call it a “busy” sauce as the flavors do all meld very well. It’s summery, fresh, bright, tangy, rich, and complex without being complicated.
The bottle suggested this for bean soups and it just so happened I had both some leftover black eyed peas and collard greens from New Year’s dinner so I decided to make those into a soup together with some chicken stock and assorted vegetables I had to use. Not only was the soup delicious this sauce was a perfect match with it, adding in that fresh herbal flavor and the perfect amount of heat. Remembering that I liked Hot House Hot Sauce with seafood I sauteed some IQF shrimp and then tossed them in this sauce for a quick dinner and the combination is great. This sauce is also great on pizza.
Butterfly Bakery of Vermont Tomato Herb Serrano gets my recommendation. I found it similar in flavor but even more enjoyable than Hot House Hot Sauce, and the milder heat level makes it more of a great daily driver type of sauce for those times you don’t want the lingering burn. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
